Bye Bye Butterflies!

For Easter, all Jack asked for was caterpillars.  The Easter Bunny delivered a butterfly garden with the baskets and the mailman delivered the caterpillars a week later.  This has been the neatest project for our family.  For about 1 1/2 weeks, the caterpillars remained in a small plastic cup with their food.  You could barely see them moving, but one day we noticed them all hanging upside down from the top.  This was the sign we were looking for to transfer them to the garden where they would hatch.  For the next week, we kept a close eye on all 5 of our chrysalis until one day we came home to a butterfly and then the next day two more butterflies and then finally on the next day the last two butterflies broke out.  The next few days we watched as they flexed their wings, practiced flying and drank the sugar water we dropped onto the balled up tissue on the garden floor.  Their first choice was flowers, but Jack wouldn't let me use the ones he gave me for Mother's Day.  Yesterday afternoon we decided it was the right time to set them free, so we took them outside for a few parting shots.

It was amazing!  One of the butterflies immediately started flying around the garden as soon as we stepped outside and when we unzipped the top, he was the first to go.  One by one, each flew out the top.  The fourth one actually climbed to the top and perched for a minute before flying away.  Notice I said the fourth one.  The fifth one is still with us.  All the cheers in the world wouldn't get this butterfly to fly, so we brought him back inside to stay with us for a few more days.  I'll have to post more on his story as it unfolds.